this is a classic paddington station sign with a page number (page 12) but also a fantastic explanation of why the escalator is shut for those who want to know more (gear-drive has been removed). even the ‘lift on your left’ is really helpful.

inspired by a visit to the Andy Warhol exhibition i’ve decided to start a series of ‘slow portraits’. each will be around 4 minutes and consist of someone just looking at the camera as if posing for an old fashion photograph. only small movements like twitches of the eyes reveal you are looking at a movie instead of a picture. all sound will be removed.

the idea is that you should slow down and study the picture in more detail. sort of forcing you to rediscover photographs like they used to be.

i’ll see how i get on – it’s a bit of an experiment. i’ll probably make a specific website for it once i’ve got a few more.

i had the day off yesterday so we could go thames pathing with jane’s sister’s family whilst they were visiting.

we picked up where we left off last time at tescos in reading before
heading over a hideous bridge where some alcoholics were enjoying the
location where the kennet canal meets the river thames.

if we’d turned off here we would have ended up in bath rather than london.

this swan was interested in jane’s dad’s photography technique (and creeped up on him whilst he was looking the other way, leading to some good expressions from the people he was photoing – a top tip i shall not be using myself)

then we passed reading’s glorious gasometers

of course there was the usual selection of geocaches to find and those over 5 years old did a slight detour to find one

there was another angry swan

and plenty of puddles

which the youngsters made the most of

we soon got to sonning lock which was the end of the episode, but not before we stopped and watched a boat coming through the lock

we were incredibly lucky with the weather which made for a great walk.

this well dressed bald man suddenly stopped in front of me when i was taking my final thames path picture. so i thought i’d include him anyway

due to the shortness of the walk and early start we didn’t end up at a pub (again) so instead we went back to our house where all 12 of us sat round our maximally extended table. (the 12th person was in a high chair just out of shot plate-counters!)